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Hotel Virginia 

Long Beach 
California 




Class __/ll45__ 
Book L S /-I9 

(i)IpgiitN»_LSlV 

COn'RIGHT DEPOSn^ 



r/r/j w No. 

of an edition limited 

to one thousand copies. 



Hospitality 

by 

Sherley Hunter 



'T^HE knowledge 
that another has 
felt as we have felt, 
and seen things, even 
if they are little 
things, not much 
otherwise than we 
have seen them, will 
continue to the end 
to be one of life's 
choicest pleasures." 

ROADS— 

Robert Louis Stevenson 






DEC 28-1914 

©CU39117,j 
'^1 




Hospitality 

I DO not know very much about 
this subject of Hospitality for I 
have had so little experience 
with it, with the kind of real hospi- 
tality that I have been seeking 
throughout the realm of Baedeker 
for. 



HOSPITALITY 



Maybe it is because I am a 
nomad, a travel-banged and scarred 
bag, ever on its way, ever crammed 
with the same experience-luggage. 

You, who have your homes in 
warm hearted Kentucky or "By 
Gum" New Hampshire or self-cent- 
ered New York way, may be perfect- 
ly familiar with the real meaning of 
hospitality. But I swear I am not, 
just a ''humming along" Hadji am I. 

"A-roving, a-roving, 
I am ever on the go. 
Of real commercial hospitality there 
is little that I know." 

Have I ever stopped at Brighton? 



HOSPITALITY 



Yes, just a metropolitan spa, with 
everything just so and nothing more. 
You lock your heart up in your bag 
and start out to be stared at. 

And I know the luxurious cara- 
vansaries of the Strand, all ref riger- 
atored. 

And the affected *'charm" of Tor- 
quay. 

Aquaed at Carlsbad and dug 
deeply in response to the cute ca- 
resses of hospitalite of Paris and 
stove off the Luxus Palast of Berlin. 

I have sought, and, know but lit- 
tle of real hospitality. 

Nor am I hard to please. When 
one travels some he knows better 



HOSPITALITY 



than to be exacting. It proves ex- 
pensive in the long run, you never 
gain your points; peace and relaxed 
temperament are sacrificed. 

Dole out your jitney, thin-one, 
two-ie and smile at what is handed 
you. 'Tis the easier way. 

HAT is real hospitality? 
How do I define it? There 
are many ways. He who 
knows his Greek mythology I will 
say it is the key of Janus, the key that 
opens and closes all good things. 

To him who just knows his Yank- 
ee-doodle I will say it is the hand of 
welcome of the mother you have not 




HOSPITALITY 



seen for ten years. The smile-ex- 
pression on her dear old face. The 
rest of the folks waiting to greet you. 
The gladsome bark of Towser. The 
old postman who recognizes you as 
he drops your belated letter, ''Why, 
hello Will, how are you?" 

There is no dodging real hospi- 
tality when it comes to you. And 
real hospitality never waits for you. 
It anticipates your wants, goes them 
one better, and then retires and 
leaves you to yourself. 

You never have to pay in advance 
for real hospitality. Sometimes, quite 
often, it becomes silently indignant 
at the proffered tip. 



HOSPITALITY 



Real hospitality is in love with its 
duties. It tries to outdo itself and al- 
ways succeeds. 

Busy, or in relaxation, it always 
comes to you on time, always tries to 
please you your way. 

Real hospitality always makes 
one want to reciprocate. 

You are afraid you are putting 
real hospitality out, and it only 
smiles in return. 

The make-up of real hospitality 
is simple. Just sincere, tireless effort 
to make others contented, cheerie, 
and glad they are alive, and a for- 
getfulness of self. 

It is the same whether it sinks its 



HOSPITALITY 



impression on your memory in a 
humble home or in the elegantly 
appointed hotel of a great metrop- 
olis. Only you seldom find it in 
hotels. 

When you do, the bill always 
seems trivial in comparison to the 
accommodations you receive. 

IF you will not think it an adver- 
tisement, I will tell you where 
such a hotel is. Maybe you will 
want to go there sometime and taste 
of my brand of real hospitality. 

It is in California, not far from 
the San Diego exposition; an hour's 
ride from mountains crowned with 



HOSPITALITY 



snow, fragrant orange groves, the 
peal of Spanish mission bells, bub- 
bling oil fields, alfalfa ranches that 
yield four crops a year, roses that 
bloom out doors the year around, 
and the city of Los Angeles which 
stands over a city of a civilization 
twenty thousand years old — long be- 
fore the civilization of Egypt and 
her Rameses, before Moses. (What 
do you know about that for a new 
West?) 

All sounds like an advertisement 
for a real estate concern, does it not? 

Out over the white tipped, blue 
Pacific you can glimpse the great 
ships plowing along the new world 



HOSPITALITY 



route that cuts the American hem- 
isphere in two at Panama. 

It is called Hotel Virginia. A 
fire-proofed steel structure of con- 
crete built in the form of a letter H, 
so that all of its rooms have an out- 
side exposure to the restful rumble 
of the rolling surf. 

And this letter H stands for Hos- 
pitality from the moment a clean- 
cut, clear-eyed young chap assists 
you with your baggage to the genu- 
ine note of regret in his voice as he 
says ''Good bye, sir," and helps you 
into a taxicab for your twenty mile 
to Pasadena on an asphalt drive 



HOSPITALITY 



that begins at the entrance of the 
Virginia. 

Even the vine hugged big win- 
dows and the gardens of blumen 
give you a hint of the Virginia's 
personality as you start to make your 
first entrance. 

You begin to relax for content- 
ment before you reach the register, 
and the secretary stifles your last 
suspicion. No, he is not a clerk. 
He is a sure enough secretary minus 
the slippery smile and suave ''once- 



over.'' 



Somehow, though you cannot 
tell how, it is all in a tone of welcome 
unordinary. 



HOSPITALITY 



There is nothing that smacks of 
the chilly morgue. 

Flunkism is nil. 

*'We are your friends, your inter- 
ests are ours because our service 
consists in trying to please folks so 
they will come back," is the message 
of the lobby, with its mammoth pil- 
lars and easy chairs — a hundred 
pixies whisper it everywhere. 

If there are women folks with 
you, they are not embarrassed by 
stares and leers and remarks behind 
highly manicured finger- nailed 
hands. 

Everyone seems to respect every- 
one else at the Virginia. 



HOSPITALITY 



(Now you know this is not an 
advertisement. For what advertis- 
ing man would notice that?) 

Up in your big room, and a man 
can get anything he wants at the 
Virginia, you find large closets and 
bathroom, high ceilings, sound- 
proof walls. And such a bed and 
variety of resty chairs! Generous 
rooms that forget nothing and add 
some surprises into the bargain. 

There are no bell-boys at the Vir- 
ginia. They are attendants who 
seem to listen at the key-hole of your 
wishes. I truly believe they brag to 
one another at the day's end of 



HOSPITALITY 



how much they have done for their 
guests. 

The Virginia way is truly the 
Virginia way. Without annoying 
you, folks suggest ways to make 
your stay more comfy; actually plan 
ways to serve you more. 

I would not call the attitude there 
courtesy, but rather a kindly, warm, 
human desire to be hospitable. 

The first time I stopped I was 
almost afraid to offer a tip. Can you 
imaging it? No one seemed to ex- 
pect it. No one really expects it. 
Every one received one, however, 
before I left, you can rest assured of 
that. 



HOSPITALITY 



Oh, yes, I have not told you the 
city where the Hotel Virginia is 
located. 

Long Beach is the place. Long 
Beach, California. Paradoxical to 
you perhaps, but Long Beach is 
cooler in summer and warmer in 
winter than the interior towns. 

The hotel, while it is along the 
beach and in the city, has its own 
private bathing frontage and dress- 
ing rooms for the guests. 

There are a dozen lovely little 
spots out-country, if you wish to go 
horse-back riding. 

In winter, arrangements can be 
made for the guests to enjoy duck- 



HOSPITALITY 



shooting opportunities at the pre- 
serves in the marshes not far from 
the city. 

Those who wish quiet and repose 
enjoy the glassed-in verandah pro- 
tected from the sea breeze. 

The Virginia is a social center 
during the year 'round. Hardly a 
week passes but what a night finds 
the great dining room with its mon- 
ster sea-looking windows ablaze 
with banquet lights for the enter- 
tainment of notable visitors to South- 
ern California. 

Both winter and summer, there 
are private tennis courts, sun-shined, 
for the guests. Here every year the 



HOSPITALITY 



Southern California championship 
tournament in all classes is held, 
and also the Pacific Coast cham- 
pionship match for men's doubles. 

'What about golf?" do I hear 
you say. 

Well, give heed to this. The 
guests of Hotel Virginia are ac- 
corded the privileges of the Virginia 
Country club course, five miles 
away, where you are taken by auto- 
mobile to the prettiest links in the 
Southwest. A course that has the 
only water hazard in the world — 
a water-drive that will appeal to the 
skill of amateur or professional. 

And if you like to skim the blue 



HOSPITALITY 



beneath the filled-out-sail, the Vir- 
ginia Yacht Regatta is the most 
important on the Southern coast. 

Take this as you will, an adver- 
tisement or merely a privilege to 
write you about a unique hotel and 
my find of real hospitality, investi- 
gate it more, it is to your advantage 
not mine. I am a Virginian. 

I believe in passing a good word 
along. 

I believe the Hotel Virginia de- 
serves it. 

I believe you will be glad I have 
when you go there. 



Press of 

Young & McCalHster, Inc. 

IyOs Angeles 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



017 168 851 6 # 



